


If She Can't Have Peace, She'll Have War On Her Terms

by alyyks



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Minor Padmé Amidala/Jango Fett, Originally Posted on Tumblr, POV Outsider, Politics, podcasts of the GFFA
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 11:13:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16911837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alyyks/pseuds/alyyks
Summary: "This is The Galactic History Podcast, I’m Pauktaa’arrena. This is episode 63 of season seven, part two of many of our recurrent series on the Clone Wars.By now, the story is well-known: three years before the Fall of the Republic, at the very heart of it, on Coruscant, one human woman stood and said enough. That woman was Senator Padmé Amidala, and as she couldn’t get peace, she presented war—but on her terms."---A transcribed episode of a podcast existing in an alternate version of the GFFA.





	If She Can't Have Peace, She'll Have War On Her Terms

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/gifts).



> A long time ago, two years and 8 months ago if you want to get technical, morgynleri prompted "Padmé, if she can't have peace, she'll have war on her terms" over on tumblr. Originally intended to be part of a series, the bits and pieces are not event-compliant with each other anymore, time to release it into the wild!

By now, the story is well-known: three years before the Fall of the Republic, at the very heart of it on Coruscant, one human woman stood up and said enough.

That woman was Senator Padmé Amidala, and as she couldn’t get peace, she presented war—but on her terms. [brief extract from speech, heard clearly is “I am Senator Amidala of Naboo and the Chomell Sector,” dramatic and militaristic music as background]

[Introduction jingle — disorganized chatter and music playing over each other until it lines up and fades into the host's voice] This is The Galactic History Podcast, I’m Pauktaa’arrena. This is episode 63 of season seven, part two of many of our recurrent series on the Clone Wars.

[brief music transition]

In part one, that can be found in episode 52 of this season, we talked about the Separatist/Confederacy movement, its roots, and its leaders. With part two, this episode, we’ll dwell closer to the heart of the so-called “Old Republic” —which always get a little strange, as the term “Old Republic” is used for both the Galactic Republic pre-Ruusan Reformation, and for the Republic in place at the time of the Clone Wars. But so, the heart of the Republic: the Galactic Senate on Coruscant. Imagine this massive chamber, decked in a color no culture represented associate with death, famine or mourning; and in it, thousand of representatives, divided by sectors and planets, orbiting around one central point: the Chancellor’s seat. The holopictures we have can not possibly do it justice. The Court of Law here on Alderaan was built to mimic the Galactic Senate and it is ridiculously big… and a hundred time smaller than its inspiration.

The Chancellor’s seat might have been the central point, but the focus, especially in the latter years, was Padmé Amidala.

[brief extract from Amidala’s endorsement speech, music in the background]

Padmé Amidala was the Senator of the Chomell Sector and Naboo. Prior to her appointment as Senator by the Queen-elect of Naboo, she had been the Queen-elect herself for two terms. She saw war then—even if it wasn’t named as such at the time. The highly controversial embargo and invasion of Naboo by the Trade Federation ten years prior to the events she is best known for was ended when the Gungan Army faced the battle droids of the Federation —the very same droids that would be the marching feet of the Separatists— while Naboo Royal pilots attacked the blockade in space. The Queen herself and a handful of Naboo SecForces and Jedi took the fight to Theed to capture the then ViceRoy of the Trade Federation and put a stop to the illegal actions. The invasion was ended, the blockade dismantled, and the Naboo citizens who had been put in camps by the invaders were freed. The whereabouts of many Naboo citizens is to this day still unknown.

The term “war” for those actions was never discussed. The Trade Federation faced negligible penalties, for the ones they could be convicted of in the Courts. The Senate pushed the whole thing under a rug to better forget it.

Padmé Amidala did not forget.

“It’s a dangerous mistake to believe that she was the only one seeing this and demanding answers.”

And this is Kernac Asan Tepp, historian at the University of Aldera 2 specializing in the turning point from the Republic to the Clone Wars.

“Senator Amidala became a polarizing figure very fast—she had been a Queen-elect, she had numerous connections through years of political life, she came on as a protégée of the Chancellor through their previous political acquaintance as he had been the Senator of the Chomell sector during the start of her term… but she certainly did not settle in that position and let things happen.”

The list of Amidala's political allies is long, and jump both temporary parties and galactic sectors. Many of the names of her acquaintances went on to show up in the higher levels of the post-war government—or in war chants.

“That very ability to have conversations with Senator and political members from all sides and groups is what made her the perfect focus of the growing restlessness following the declaration of the Confederacy. At this time, all that was needed was one pebble moving down to start an avalanche.”

And what a pebble, what an avalanche. [brief audio extract from news, something about an explosion, another voice giving a death toll]

“Really the turning point was the attempted assassination before a bill for the creation of the army—presented as the missing judiciary arm of the Republic— was set to be presented to the Senate and voted on. Senator Amidala was vocal in her refusal in that bill, and gathered the support of a lot of like-minded Senators in what she justly saw as a menace to the stability of the Republic and the complete betrayal of the values they were supposed to uphold. The attempted assassination only deferred the vote—but what happened next made it simply moot.”

There are few accounts of the days after: all that is certain is that Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Padawan Anakin Skywalker were assigned as bodyguards to the Senator.

And if those names sound familiar, well, remember that Amidala’s allies were not destined to stay in the shadows.

[brief jingle-like interlude, singing resembling a Mandalorian war-chant]

Amidala was the target of a second assassination attempt on Coruscant. For her safety, it was decided she would return to Naboo.

While Skywalker left Coruscant with the Senator, Kenobi tracked the would-be assassin to the previously unknown, or forgotten—and dare I say deliberately forgotten? It is a point of debate in academic circles— world of Kamino, where he discovered cloning facilities that had been creating, according to the Kaminoan cloners… an army for the Republic. Of the one or ones who put things in motion, nothing. Rumors abounded, and a persistent one pointed to the Jedi under the pressure of Finis Valorum, the previous Chancellor.

To the great surprise of the Republic however, the 500,000 clone human men who were ready to be deployed refused to take oath to serve the Galactic Republic once off-world, and rallied under the banner of the Manda’lore in exile Jango Fett.

[extract of speech in the Senate: “I am Jango Fett, elected Mand’alor, and I do not recognize the authority of Duchess Satine Kryze over the Mandalore system and its government.”]

To everyone's surprise, Senator Amidala supported the troops' claim and Manda’lore in exile Jango Fett. A surprise—until it became clear that Fett and Amidala were allies and had been for quite some time, had seen some of the changes coming to the Republic and planned for them.

“There is very little of the communications between Amidala and Fett remaining. The only people other than them that we for sure know were aware of the full scope of their operations were the both of them, Boba Fett—just a child at the time—, Wolffe of Wolfpack Clan, and Rex and Cody of Kenobi Clan. Everything else is left to suppositions and educated guesses based on a timeline that is not always clear. Given the level of secrecy involved, it’s amazing that we have a timeline at all. Even the public events Amidala was present at have been distorted through politics and propaganda, to say nothing of her own body doubles and manipulations.”

The Senate, as can be expected, descended into chaos—threats against Amidala, Fett, and the troops mounted, while the public opinion moved back and forth between seeing the new independent army as one more threat, an act of war to incite the Confederacy toward violence, and a violation of Sentient Rights, as full-body cloning, especially to this extant, was illegal in the Republic. The fractures within the very fabric of the Republic were never more obvious than at this time.

And so we come to the better known part of this story.

[musical background, chatter, airwaves sounds]

In front of a Senate descended into name-calling and ineffectual politicking, Senator Padmé Amidala, at the head of the Loyalist Committee representing over 2000 sectors, spoke those words:

[music swells, extract from speech: “—It is our opinion that the instability and uselessness of our government has its source in this very room. The Republic we swore to uphold does not exist anymore. As such, the Loyalist Committee, representing 2386 sectors of the Galactic Republic, demands the dissolution of the current government. Failing that, we can only conclude that this page of the history of the galaxy is done, and that our only possible course of action is our complete withdrawal from the Galactic Republic.” The end of the speech is almost covered by the clamor of hundred of voices.]

The immediate reaction of the Republic was to arrest every member of the Loyalist Committee—or to attempt to. Many had sent their non-essential personnel off planet, and many routes off Coruscant remained open due to curiously-timed electrical errors. Amidala herself evaded arrest in plain sight of both Coruscant guards and the media, and it is speculated that the man in clone trooper armor by her side was none other than Jango Fett in disguise.

A few minutes after her speech and escape off-planet, hundred of files and documents exposing the dealings and back-room deals of Senators using the trapping of their offices as a way to clean all manner of illegal and immoral dealings hit the Holonet and the broadcast stations of dozens of well-known media outlets.

“A lot more happened than merely one woman evading capture after a speech—she exposed the rotting floorboards of the government, and all manners of bugs were left to scurry. The situation within the Jedi Temple and who followed and agreed with her declaration also had far-reaching consequences that ‘just’ politics, with all the caveats that entails, should have had—all in all, it made a shaky situation unbearable, and to keep face the Republic could do nothing but to declare war to the Confederacy, and to the Loyalist Committee, who renamed itself in the few hours after the speech The Alliance.”

[repeated clamor of "We Are The Alliance!," music, layered chatter from well-known media broadcasts, airwaves sounds]

[end jingle]

The Galactic History Podcast is made possible by the endorsement of the Society of Alderaan for the Arts and History, the Alliance Fund for Historical Research, and the generosity of our patrons across the galaxy. Thank you, and see you in our next episode.


End file.
